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Comment by epups | Hacker News Reader

Not sure what point you're trying to make here. You can go and start your company any time, sure, but I would much rather be a VP in a medium sized startup than a founder. And to get to VP, even in a small organisation, you certainly need competence.

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> And to get to VP, even in a small organisation, you certainly need competence.

Being extremely competent is one way to get into these positions, but it's hardly the only way.

These positions are often given to people who are viewed as the most loyal, most credentialed, most connected, or most polished. Competency is often assumed, or even wished for, but it may not be the driving force behind the decision making.

I've been a at a couple high-growth startups. The number of people who get hired or promoted into VP positions for no reason other than having the right connections and being loyal for empire-building purposes was shocking.

> And to get to VP, even in a small organisation, you certainly need competence.

I don't know if I agree with that. Anyway, competence comes at various levels.

If you open a company right now, what would be your criteria for promotion?

You can get to VP without competence. Staying there requires it. You don't necessarily have to be the most competent person possible but there is a floor.

> You don't necessarily have to be the most competent person possible but there is a floor.

Heh, well that's not really saying much.

Floor = minor negative impact to the business due to your (in)competence.

So from what I've seen and learned, there's definitely a difference between being truly smart/visionary/creative etc vs just being "not dumb". And while I suppose the latter could also be deemed a kind of competence, I think what the others are driving at boils down to this - people with connections or just a knack for politics and schmoozing can get pretty far ahead and many underlings often mistake their rise for some sort of amazing technical or creative ability.

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